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Breaking News in Tech, Search, Social, & BusinessTue, 31 Mar 2015 20:05:26 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=3.8.1Sharyl Attkisson Sues DOJ Over Alleged Hackinghttp://www.webpronews.com/sharyl-attkisson-sues-doj-over-alleged-hacking-2015-01
http://www.webpronews.com/sharyl-attkisson-sues-doj-over-alleged-hacking-2015-01#commentsMon, 05 Jan 2015 20:06:44 +0000http://www.webpronews.com/?p=412394Former CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson has made her accusations against the Obama administration official, as she has sued the Justice Department over the alleged hacking of her computers. According to a press release, Attkisson has filed administrative claims under the Federal Tort Claims Act against the Department of Justice, the U.S. Postal Service, and certain unnamed employees and/or agents of the federal government.

In June of 2013, CBS confirmed that Attkisson’s computer had indeed been “accessed by an unauthorized, external, unknown party on multiple occasions late in 2012,” but was unable to identify a culprit.

“While no malicious code was found, forensic analysis revealed an intruder had executed commands that appeared to involve search and exfiltration of data.This party also used sophisticated methods to remove all possible indications of unauthorized activity and alter system times to cause further confusion,” said CBS at the time.

From the beginning, Attkisson hinted that she thought the federal government could be behind the hacks. The Justice Department has denied the accusations, saying,

“To our knowledge, the Justice Department has never compromised Ms. Attkisson’s computers, or otherwise sought any information from or concerning any telephone, computer, or other media device she may own or use.”

“The personal rights secured by our Constitution have a long and accepted history. At the very core of those rights is the right to be free in our own homes from unreasonable governmental intrusion. Although I would have much preferred to have resolved this efficiently with dialogue and disclosure, until the government is open, honest, and fully truthful with my family about what transpired, we have chosen to use the only means available to us as citizens to try and force full disclosure and honest answers to the many questions that have been raised during the investigation conducted to date,” said Attkisson.

According to Politico, there have been some inconsistencies in Attkisson’s story. In a book, published after the hacks occurred, Attkisson claims to know the person(s) responsible for the attack.

From Politico:

Yet in an interview with Huffington Post Live … Attkisson said she didn’t know who was responsible: “The forensics says that there was a government tie to this… [that] doesn’t mean I know who was on the other end or was it an organization or was it a person, a rogue person, I don’t have the answer to those questions, I just know that there’s that government tie.”

Media Matters flagged the inconsistencies in Attkisson’s explanation … Yet when reached by email, she told POLITICO she would not address the matter because Media Matters was an unreliable, partisan organization.

]]>http://www.webpronews.com/sharyl-attkisson-sues-doj-over-alleged-hacking-2015-01/feed0Gabrielle Union Threatens To Contact FBI Over Leaked Nude Photoshttp://www.webpronews.com/gabrielle-union-threatens-to-contact-fbi-over-leaked-nude-photos-2-2014-09
http://www.webpronews.com/gabrielle-union-threatens-to-contact-fbi-over-leaked-nude-photos-2-2014-09#commentsFri, 26 Sep 2014 03:13:29 +0000http://www.webpronews.com/?p=392493Gabrielle Union will be contacting the FBI to deal with topless photos of her that were leaked on the net.

After confirming that the said photos were authentic, the The Bring It On actress and husband Dwyane Wade released a statement together, reports TMZ:

“It has come to our attention that our private moments, that were shared and deleted solely between my husband and myself, have been leaked by some vultures,” read the statement.

“I can’t help but to be reminded that since the dawn of time women and children, specifically women of color, have been victimized, and the power over their own bodies taken from them. These atrocities against women and children continue worldwide.”

“For anyone out there also being affected by these and other hacking and hate crimes – We send our love, support and prayers. We have done nothing wrong.”

Union is only one of a number of celebrities who have fallen victim to a hacking attack that targets celebs’ private photos that are reportedly traded for bitcoins. It is now suspected that naked images of about a hundred actors, singers, models and presenters have been leaked, including those of Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton, Ariana Grande and Mary Winstead.

Grande and a few other stars have claimed that the pictures are fakes. Like Union, Lawrence verified the the photos of her were authentic.

A spokesperson for Lawrence said: “This is a flagrant violation of privacy. The authorities have been contacted and will prosecute anyone who posts the stolen photos of Jennifer Lawrence.”

Winstead has likewise commented about the level of hacking that went into obtaining the photos, claiming that the images of herself had been deleted.

“Knowing those photos were deleted long ago, I can only imagine the creepy effort that went into this,” the actress wrote.

The FBI and Apple are currently conducting investigations into the apparent widespread hacking thought to be connected to the iCloud service.

]]>http://www.webpronews.com/gabrielle-union-threatens-to-contact-fbi-over-leaked-nude-photos-2-2014-09/feed0Rihanna: Photo Leak Reportedly Shows Popstar In The Nudehttp://www.webpronews.com/rihanna-photo-leak-reportedly-shows-popstar-in-the-nude-2014-09
http://www.webpronews.com/rihanna-photo-leak-reportedly-shows-popstar-in-the-nude-2014-09#commentsTue, 23 Sep 2014 08:28:08 +0000http://www.webpronews.com/?p=391512On Sunday, popstar Rihanna joined the list of unfortunate female celebrities whose alleged nude photos have been leaked to the public. The singer from Barbados had her privacy violated recently when purported photos of her naked hit sites such as 4chan and Reddit and were shared by users on others.

TMZ reported that on early Sunday morning, two photos of someone who appeared to be Rihanna were posted on 4chan and Reddit. One of the photos had censored her breasts, while the other showed her naked backside and one of her nipples. According to the site, it seemed as if the photos of Rihanna had been taken during a fitting. The site reportedly reached out to the singer’s representative about the matter but has not yet received a reply.

Among the stars whose alleged photos were leaked in this second wave were Aubrey Plaza, Mary-Kate Olsen, Hayden Panettiere and Leelee Sobieski. Jennifer Lawrence was one of the targets of the first leak in early September but was not spared in the second round of leaks, which delivered previously unreleased photos of her.

Calls have been made by various critics online to avoid viewing the leaked photos as they are a breach of the celebrities’ privacy. According to Claire Cohen, Deputy Women’s Editor for The Telegraph, looking at the photos is part of the online trend of normalizing “Peeping Tom” behavior.

Actress Jessica Chastain has also spoken out against the leaked nude photos. In an interview with Sky News on Sunday, she commented, “It’s such a violation. To me they’re not leaked photos, they’re stolen photos. Me appearing nude in a film is my choice and I find it so terrible that these actresses have been completely victimized.”

“Anything sexual which does not have the woman saying ‘yes’ to is a big problem to me, so I hope that we find out who these people were and we can go after them as hard as we can,” she added.

]]>http://www.webpronews.com/rihanna-photo-leak-reportedly-shows-popstar-in-the-nude-2014-09/feed0Syrian Electronic Army Hacks Microsoft Againhttp://www.webpronews.com/syrian-electronic-army-hacks-microsoft-again-2014-01
http://www.webpronews.com/syrian-electronic-army-hacks-microsoft-again-2014-01#commentsTue, 21 Jan 2014 20:15:51 +0000http://www.webpronews.com/?p=310292The Syrian Electronic Army has hacked a Microsoft blog again. You may recall earlier this month when the organization gained control of the company’s official Skype blog and Skype social media accounts.

At the time, it advised readers against using Microsoft’s email products because “they are monitoring your accounts and selling the data to the governments.”

On Monday, they gained control of Microsoft’s Office Blogs site as it rolled out a new design.

Microsoft appears to be back in control of the site. We’ve reached out to the company for a statement, and will update as we get one.

Update: A Microsoft spokesperson tells us, “A targeted cyberattack temporarily affected the Microsoft Office blog and the account was reset. We can confirm that no customer information was compromised. Microsoft continues to take a number of actions to protect our employees and accounts against this industry-wide issue.”

]]>http://www.webpronews.com/syrian-electronic-army-hacks-microsoft-again-2014-01/feed0This Anarchist Wants To Use Bitcoin to Crowdfund Assassinshttp://www.webpronews.com/this-anarchist-wants-to-use-bitcoin-to-crowdfund-assassins-2013-11
http://www.webpronews.com/this-anarchist-wants-to-use-bitcoin-to-crowdfund-assassins-2013-11#commentsMon, 18 Nov 2013 16:45:33 +0000http://www.webpronews.com/?p=283297]]>Forbes author Andy Greenberg wrote today about an encrypted email he received from a person who called themselves Kuwabatake Sanjuro. Sanjuro claimed to have designed a Deepweb site called the Assassination Market, which apparently has the capability to “crowdfund” political assassinations in a similar manner as Kickstarter.

For the technically unfamiliar, “the Deepweb” or “DarkNet” (depending on who you’re talking to) is the part of the internet that remains inaccessible and uncatalogued by most websites due to anonymizing protocols like Tor. Sites that exist in this unexplored frontier operate on a scale from legal ‘gray markets’ that appear as an eBay for criminals to terrorist groups attempting to solicit donations for their violent agenda.

In an email to Greenberg, Sanjuro said the site went up four months ago, and six targets have been submitted. Those six targets (and their bounties) include: 10 bitcoins for the death of Gen. Keith Alexander; 40 bitcoins for the assassination of President Obama; and the site’s largest bounty, 124.14 bitcoin, for the head of Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve and one of the biggest opponents of bitcoin banking.

The aspirations that Sanjuro has for his site are terrifying. As Greenberg put it, Sanjuro hopes to greenlight enough political murder to scare politicians into returning their power to the masses. “[The Assassination Market will] destroy all governments, everywhere,” he said.

“Thanks to this system, a world without wars, dragnet panopticon-style surveillance, nuclear weapons, armies, repression, money manipulation, and limits to trade is firmly within our grasp for but a few bitcoins per person,” he added. “I also believe that as soon as a few politicians gets offed and they realize they’ve lost the war on privacy, the killings can stop and we can transition to a phase of peace, privacy and laissez-faire.”

Greenberg went as far to contact the FBI and the Secret Service, who declined to comment on the Assassination Market.

The idea for an online “assassin’s market” originated in 1992 from a former Intel engineer who wrote that uncrackable cypher messages combined with encrypted, anonymous donations would give rise to online assassination markets. A second former Intel engineer named Jim Bell described how such a system might be implemented in an essay called “Assassination Politics.”

Like the earlier generation of “cypherpunk” enthusiasts, Sajuro places his faith in cryptography. He claims that “with cryptography, the state, or any protection firm, is largely obsolete…all activity that can be reduced to information transfer will be completely out of the government’s, or anyone’s, hands, other than the parties involved.”

Investigators have indicated that they believe Love obtained access utilizing a flaw in Adobe Systems’ ColdFusion web-building software. An Adobe spokeswoman added that the majority of cyberattacks took place because of software that had not yet been updated with security patches.

Between Love’s initial hack and the arrest, the FBI believe that Anonymous hackers repeatedly entered the government system, stole personal details from employees, contractors and families. 2000 bank accounts were stolen, and the FBI is worried about theft. Love’s lawyers are fighting his extradition and are hoping to keep him in the U.K. to face hacking charges.

An FBI memo has called the hacking “a widespread problem that should be addressed… the majority of the intrusions have not yet been made publicly known [and] It is unknown exactly how many systems have been compromised.”

Anonymous has called the attacks “Operation Last Resort,” and campaigners for the hacktivist collective have said the operation was a retaliatory measure for the prosecution and suicide of Aaron Swartz, a computer programmer who attained notoriety when he allegedly saved hundreds of published articles from the academic digital library, JSTOR. Swartz had illegally accessed hundreds of academic papers and made them free for anyone to download.

“I have tried everything from voting petitions to peaceful protest and have found that those in power do not want the truth to be exposed,” Hammond said in his sentencing statement, which he used as a soapbox. “When we speak truth to power we are ignored at best and brutally suppressed at worst. We are confronting a power structure that does not respect its own system of checks and balances, never mind the rights of it’s [sic] own citizens or the international community.”

]]>http://www.webpronews.com/fbi-anonymous-hackers-net-over-100k-employees-info-2013-11/feed0Million Mask March Protests…Stuff…http://www.webpronews.com/million-mask-march-protests-stuff-2013-11
http://www.webpronews.com/million-mask-march-protests-stuff-2013-11#commentsTue, 05 Nov 2013 22:38:48 +0000http://www.webpronews.com/?p=278479Remember, remember!
The fifth of November,
The Gunpowder treason and plot;
I know of no reason
Why the Gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot!

So begins many different iterations of poetry derived from the Gunpowder Plot, an attempt by Catholics to depose the Protestant King James I and replaced him with a Catholic head-of-state. The most famous member of this treasonous plot, Guy Fawkes, was captured by authorities while trying to light 36 gunpowder kegs underneath Parliament, in hopes of killing the King and other members of the British government. The Guy Fawkes figure was later adapted by Alan Moore in his graphic novel, “V for Vendetta,” which was then turned into a hugely successful motion picture.

Now, the Guy Fawkes image has been adapted once again for another use. This time, the hacktivist group Anonymous has adopted the image to represent their fight against… the world? On their main website and Facebook page, Anonymous encourages people in 450+ locations to march against their governments on November 5th. Their cause? “To remind this world what it has forgotten, That fairness, justice, and freedom are more than just words” What that means, exactly, no one knows. Anonymous made sure to point out that the march has no leader and is only a movement, not an organization.

Despite the fact that the movement is leaderless, it has gained some steam. More than 17,000 people RSVP’d to attend demonstrations in Washington, D.C., where such topics as nuclear warfare, political corruption, and NSA actions were spoken against. However, it is unlikely that the demonstrations will see more than 1 million people march, especially with a paltry showing of 50 people at Time Square in New York City.

The lack of support for the Million Mask March is most likely due in large part due to the incoherent nature of the march itself. Not only is Anonymous involved, but also other social protest groups, such as Wikileaks, the Pirate Party, and the Occupy Movement. While all of these groups can label themselves under the banner of standing against government corruption and inequality, there is no real “joining” rhetoric or propaganda. If the Occupy Movement made no real head-way with their months of “organized’ protests, how does the Million Mask March plan to create any real change?

The most effective thing this march does is put money into the hands of Time Warner, the company that owns the rights to the Guy Fawkes image worn by all the protesters. The other accomplishment of this march is to misrepresent history. Guy Fawkes was not an anti-authoritarian figure – he was trying to depose one king only to establish another. And Guy Fawkes Night was traditionally celebrated in England as an anti-Catholic holiday after the assassination attempt failed and the Protestants reappropriated the day.

While it may be true that Anonymous is one of the most influential groups in the world, this march is nothing more than typical American grandstanding. Anonymous should stick to their hacking ways and leave organized protest to those more socially adept.

AsapSCIENCE, as always, takes a complicated topic and condenses it into a delightful 3-minute animation. It may not clear everything up, but it sure makes you think. Makes you think. It made you think. Brain hacking, yo.

Image via Thinkstock

]]>http://www.webpronews.com/brain-hacking-gets-the-asapscience-treatment-2013-10/feed0Australia Claims To Have Nabbed LulzSec Leader, Anonymous Says They Nabbed A Trollhttp://www.webpronews.com/australia-claims-to-have-nabbed-lulzsec-leader-anonymous-says-they-nabbed-a-troll-2013-04
http://www.webpronews.com/australia-claims-to-have-nabbed-lulzsec-leader-anonymous-says-they-nabbed-a-troll-2013-04#commentsWed, 24 Apr 2013 16:21:25 +0000http://www.webpronews.com/?p=226519Just last week, a member of LulzSec was sentenced for his part in the Sony Pictures hack in 2011 that saw information from the site being spread across the Internet. Now Australia says it’s nabbed another member of the notorious hacking group.

The Australian Federal Police announced yesterday evening that they arrested Matt Flannery, a 24-year-old IT professional from Point Claire. The police allege that he attacked and defaced a government Web site earlier in the month. Interestingly enough, the police also say that he’s a “self-proclaimed leader” of LulzSec.

The police say Flannery used his position within an IT company to hack a number of clients. The police also warned that he would have attacked more Web sites had he stayed employed with the company.

Flannery faces two counts of unauthorized modification of data to cause impairment and one count of unauthorized access to, or modification of, restricted data. The police note that the maximum penalty for the former is 10 years and 2 years for the latter.

What’s interesting about all of this is that the police say he’s a “self-proclaimed leader” of LulzSec. Members of Anonymous and others have come out on Twitter to dispute this claim:

]]>http://www.webpronews.com/australia-claims-to-have-nabbed-lulzsec-leader-anonymous-says-they-nabbed-a-troll-2013-04/feed2LulzSec Hacker Responsible For Sony Hack Gets A Year In Prisonhttp://www.webpronews.com/lulzsec-hacker-responsible-for-sony-hack-gets-a-year-in-prison-2013-04
http://www.webpronews.com/lulzsec-hacker-responsible-for-sony-hack-gets-a-year-in-prison-2013-04#commentsFri, 19 Apr 2013 21:18:23 +0000http://www.webpronews.com/?p=225926In 2011, LulzSec was a name that everybody knew. They were the hacking group behind the PlayStation Network hack of 2011 that brought the service down for more than a month. They were also responsible for a number of other attacks on companies over the course of a few months.

Since then, the members of LulzSec have been rounded up and taken to trial. The latest trial saw Cody Kretsinger, known as “Recursion” in online circles, sentenced to a year in prison. He was convicted on one count of conspiracy and unauthorized impairment of a protected computer. After his year in prison, he will remain under home detention.

You may be thinking that Kretsinger’s sentence is a little light. He was able to get his sentence down to a year thanks to a plea bargain he made last year with federal prosecutors. As part of that plea bargain, he admitted to hacking into a Sony Pictures’ database and sharing the information with other members of LulzSec.

Home detention won’t be the only thing that Kretsigner has to look forward to after his stint in prison either. The U.S. district judge ordered him to complete 1,000 hours of community service. Maybe he can help clean up Sony Pictures’ studios in Los Angeles to help make up the $600,000 in damages that federal prosecutors say he caused the studio.